Kyle Davies left the game last night in the first inning with anterior shoulder soreness and will undergo an MRI today to determine the severity of the injury. In related news, karmic retribution rains down upon Royals fans rejoicing at an injury to one of their own in the form of a 19-1 annihilation at the hands of the Cleveland Indians.

I don’t believe in karma or any other type of supernatural phenomenon, but last night’s game certainly gave me a bit of skepticism. The much-maligned pitcher Kyle Davies is removed in the first inning, only to be replaced by a parade of pitchers surrendering an unprecedented number of runs. It was the ultimate “be careful what you wish for” moment.

Before anyone could utter the phrase “Does this mean we’ll see Danny Duff..” the scoreboard was being changed so fast it looked like the dashboard of Doc Brown’s DeLorean. I think any Royals fan began to instantly question whether or not wishing for the downfall of Davies was in reality the best course of action.

I’ve long argued that while Kyle Davies isn’t a great pitcher, he’s a fine back of the rotation guy on a large swath of Major League teams. Yes, I know that Craig posited that he was the worst pitcher in history, and the numbers do bear that out. However, what I took away from those numbers is that he’s just been given a significantly longer opportunity than most back of the rotation guys. Part of that has to do with getting to the big leagues at such a young age that, combined with his above average stuff and ability to stay healthy lets him rack up a large number of innings.

I believe that a lot of the anger directed towards Kyle Davies and the resulting wishes for “someone, anyone else” are due to wanting something different. We know what Kyle Davies is, we can no longer project something onto him and as fans we want to project. Guys we don’t know, players we’ve barely seen are people we can project onto. We can dream them into a diamond in the rough, or a future ace. We know so little about them that anything is possible. With Davies, we know too much.

Last night, his health failed him and with it went his stuff. Over the past few outings, Davies had been keeping the Royals in games. Three of his last four starts were of the quality variety. Beyond that, he had completely changed his approach. He was posting career high strikeout numbers and career low walk numbers. He was finally trusting his stuff and pitching in the strike zone. It lead to a significant increase in the number of hits he allowed, but that’s to be expected. With an improved defense behind him, it was the right decision for Davies.

It’s unclear now whether he will get to prove he was a new pitcher, that will all come down to what the doctors say. Initially it was announced that he would be replaced by Robinson Tejeda, but that was premature. We’ll know more today.

But what of Vin Mazzaro, the pitcher that came to the Royals from the Oakland Athletics and was thrown to the wolves that had taken the form of Indians? In the ultimate insult added to injury, he was demoted to Omaha.

There’s little question over whether or not a Major League pitcher should be able to do better than Mazzaro did last night. He was already sitting in the bullpen, so it’s almost certain he knew he was coming into the game at the first sign of trouble from Kyle Davies. That trouble did come, and then Nate Adcock entered the game to give Mazzaro some extra time to get ready.

The game was inching out of control before Mazzaro even got in, but once he toed the rubber he threw grenades on a bonfire. Or did he? The two and a third innings he pitched didn’t really seem as bad while it was happening. The Indians didn’t crush every pitch they saw, there were lots of bloop hits and seeing eye singles –the bad-luck portion of the Batting Average on Balls in Play statistic (BABIP). The Royals weren’t making errors either, there were a few balls hit to the outfield that a speedier player might have gotten. I can remember one to each of left, center and right that someone like Jarrod Dyson would have ran down. But those happen all the time.

What I believe we witnessed last night wasn’t just a pitcher being dominated. It was a combination of bad luck, poor pitching and poor preparation. It just compounded in a historic way.

As human beings we want to try and make sense of these things. We ask ourselves what all of this means. Does it mean that the Royals are the team we thought they were before the season? Does it mean that Kyle Davies is better than we thought? Does it mean that the Dejesus trade was a bad one?

The questions are numerous, interesting and what makes baseball discussion so great. But in the end, they’re kind of pointless. The 19-1 loss to the Indians means one thing: there is one more L on the record book. I guess it also means that Kyle Davies might be on the D.L. and there will be some roster movement to get a starting pitcher. But all in all, it’s just one loss. As fans we can project whatever we want on that historic loss last night, that’s just what we do.

Update: It’s being reported that Danny Duffy will be promoted and make the start for the Royals on Wednesday.

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I would like to take this time to admit that I was completely wrong in my belief that Mazzaro would be a useful part of the Royals this year. Completely missed that one.

However, there is good news for Mazzaro. If his career follows the path of Les McCrabb, the previous reliever that gave up 14 earned runs in an appearance, he will make the major leagues again. Of course, it took McCrabb eight years to make his next appearance, so we might see Mazzaro again in 2019.

That being said, if the Royals manage to win tonight and gain a couple of games in the standings over the next week, this will be just a bad memory.

Written by Greg about 4 years ago.

“Does it mean that the Royals are the team we thought they were before the season?”
No, but I never did and still don’t think they’re a contender either

“Does it mean that Kyle Davies is better than we thought?”
He’s better than most think, but still not an option for a contender. Nothing that happened last night changed that opinion.

“Does it mean that the Dejesus trade was a bad one?”
Probably, but, again, nothing that happened last night changed my opinion there either. It was a questionable trade at the time and remains questionable.

I still think Mazzaro has better days ahead assuming he get another shot. The real question now is how are the Royals going to fill out the rotation assuming Davies goes no the DL? I have to think Teaford is going to get a start? Surely not Tejeda starting? Other than those options Suppan or Duffy, but either would have to be added to the 40 man. It’s going to be an interesting week.

Written by airgoesit about 4 years ago.

Amazing how the injury didn’t appear during warm up, only after 3 BB and a rip down the 1B line. Convince me he didn’t know about it before the first pitch. If one person calls him a “gamer” for trying to play I may lose it.
Say what you want, this couldn’t have happened at a worse time. NOBODY in AAA is ready yet and probably at least a month away and we have two “legitimate” MLB pitchers left in the rotation. I’m calling it, we’re only in the beginning of the losing streak that derails the season. I just hope we don’t panic and start calling up incomplete personnel, switching Crow to the rotation, pitching Collins 2 innings a night…oh wait, that already happens…
RIP Royals 2011.
Dramatic enough?

I think that the Royals and Davies knew about it before first pitch, which is why Mazzaro was in the bulllpen and ready to go if needed.

Written by scotth about 4 years ago.

Look at what the indians are doing this year, This could be us next year. The indians took there lumps last year and brought most of their top prospects up the the show early and let them learn and it is paying off big time this year. Admititly I know not all of our top prospects are ready for the show but I do think we see 1 new face from Omaha and 1 familiar face (suppan). He was signed just for this type of situation. We will see later today.

Written by KCattheBat about 4 years ago.

Greg – Seems likely, but they haven’t announced the corresponding move yet, only that they’ve purchased Duffy’s contract, he will start Wednesday and they will make a corresponding move on Wednesday. Presumably, they’re waiting on results from Davies’ MRI, as he could go to 60-day DL and therefore open up spot on 40-man.

Written by steve y about 4 years ago.

Is Dayton panicking after setting two all time major league records for starters last night (worst runs given up in less than 3 innings ever (his DeJesus pitcher), plus career extension of worst ERA starter ever given over 125 starts (each an infamous record of Dayton on its own, but to combine 2 in one game, hopefully the low point of all time for Royals pitching)? Well, I hope that Duffy is ready or can benefit from coming up to learn how to get ready, as I am sick and tired of all the horrible starting pitching that we have been subjected to since Dayton got here, and before. I agree with him that starting pitching is the most important thing, and I hope he is ready to start bringing up some guys that can do that. I would trade the entire current starting staff for a plate of nachos.

Written by fb0252 about 4 years ago.

Luke Hochevar injured each of the past to years.
Meche
Two 2011 starting pitchers on the disabled list + Tejada injured and obviously pitching while injured.

permitting Davies into the game when they must have known there was a problem during warm up.

the bizarre handling of Mazzaro including endangering this young pitcher by leaving him out there for one of the longest innnings in history.

how much longer does Royals pitching coach get a pass.

Written by fb0252 about 4 years ago.

oh, and now they call up a mentally fragile rookie and start him, major league debut, against one of the toughest hitting clubs in baseball (instead of easing Duffy, into the majors.

Written by Clark Fosler about 4 years ago.

I have not heard any encouraging news about Tejeda’s velocity – I wonder if he will not be activated when Davies goes on DL.

Written by KCattheBat about 4 years ago.

FB – Most people ignore your bluster about pitching regimens, etc. because it’s obvious you don’t do even basic research before commenting. Texas will be without Hamilton and Cruz when they come to town. That leaves Beltre as the only guy with more home runs than Frenchy and Young as the only one with a higher batting average. Duffy also gets to start in the friendly confines of the K. Save waiting for the next Mariners series, there won’t be a better opportunity to ease him into the majors than now.

Written by Austyn about 4 years ago.

Something weird happened to me yesterday, I was excited to watch the Royals play on TV for the first time in a few days, then Davies got hurt and right then it was like my interest in the game went to zero. I could care less what was happening, and it seem like it happened to the fans and to Frank and Ryan too. The whole place was quite, and it was strange.

Written by Sean about 4 years ago.

What if Davies MRI comes back clean and he’s not hurt? Are we ruling out the fact that he walked 3 guys (not uncommon for him) and could have easilty contributed more (taken some runs off of Mazarro’s plate) in the blowout? If he does go on the DL, I hope by the time he comes back there isn’t a spot for him. Mazarro is clearly not very good either, nor is DeJesus w/ the A’s so far.

Our offense is starting to match the performances of our starting pitching as well. I hope it’s just a bad patch of the season and not reality…

Written by Abh about 4 years ago.

Strange the attendance barely topped 12,000 given the weather was finally nice for a change. I didn’t watch but would guess by the fifth inning it was much closer to zero than 12,000.

Written by kcghost about 4 years ago.

During the course of a season every team takes a beat down. Sad to see one guy just thrown to the wolves like that. Again, we all have to wonder about GMDM’s ability to evaluate major league talent. Trading DDJ for Mazzaro was simply a mistake.

Written by jim fetterolf about 4 years ago.

With Duffy tomorrow night there may be an attendance spike. I’m thinking about going, just to get a glimpse of the future.

In general, Royals finished the roughly 1st quarter at 20-20, better than my pre-season prediction of 15-25, so I’m happy and I think management is also. I’m still comfortable seeing them as an 80-85 win team with a chance of upside surprise.

Written by CL_on_the_DL about 4 years ago.

I’m going to pay myself on the back a little here – I had predicted the Duffy start tomorrow night in at least one comment to an article on this website. I did not expect it to be on the heels of a historical ass kicking, but beggars can’t be choosers.

I’ve got tickets to tomorrow night’s game and am excited for the Royals future.

Jim – I take it you mean increase? Over here “Spike” means the opposite!

Its gonna be an interesting few days thats for sure!

Hang on to your hats everyone…………..

Written by jim fetterolf about 4 years ago.

“We can dream them into a diamond in the rough, or a future ace. We know so little about them that anything is possible. With Davies, we know too much.”

Excellent phrasing.

“Jim – I take it you mean increase? Over here “Spike” means the opposite!”

Opposite would be “trough”, here in the wilds of Missouri. Yes, an increase.

Written by Jayhawk Deacon about 4 years ago.

Saw Omaha vs. Colorado Springs tonight, wind was blowing out and the usual 6,000 ft+ effect. Moustakas’ homer was wind-aided to right center (it blew out to RC for the first 4 innings, then slowed down). Orlando’s homerun was a bomb to center, Pina had a nice shot to LC (1st of the year), and Kila had a bases clearing line drive double that the RF just turned around and waited for it to come off the wall to him (crushed). I will state the obvious, everyone thought that Cain was fast as he tracked down several balls on the warning track easily. Pucetas and Chavez got shelled with the wind blowing out, but got the win due to a 7 run rally in the eighth. Sorry no in-depth analysis as I was chasing my 2 kids around mostly.

Written by Jayhawk Deacon about 4 years ago.

Also had a Josh Fields and Mike Jacobs sighting…Jacobs hit one out with the wind in the 2nd, but the announcers said it would have gone out in any condition.